The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-09-17
A THRILLING STORY.
Exciting Page from the Life Of a
Prospector.

ga man gets some queer ideas in his
head when he's out all alone in the
mountains" said John Sanderson, an
old prospector who has his head
quarters at Ell Paso, but who makes
several incursions into the mining dis
tricts every year.
Half of them believe in ghosts, nne
out of ten in signs, and about all of
them in luck, My own experience has
changed my views in good many
particulars, and, for one thing, it has
made me firm believer in special
providences. 1t didn't come about
gradually, but through as marvellous
escape from an awful death as, l be-
lieve, ever falls to men.
ut happened up in the Mimbres
mountains four years ago this summer.
The Mimbres lie in New Mexico, down
below old Fort Tule Rosa, and they must
be full of gold somewhere, because the
beds of the creeks that find their way
down the sides are so rich in placer
diggings that you can't pull up sage
brush around there without seeing
bright specks among the roots. had
pet theory then that if you followed
the creeks up high enough and looked
close enough you would find ire
mendous deposit Of gold in decomposed
quartz. l thought, you see, that lit
tie of it had washed off the surface in
tbn of fit,,o and 81
placers. What wanted to find was
the mother mine.
81 talked the thing up to Charley
Burke, another prospector and friend
OF mine, until he agreed to put up half
the outfit and join me in the search.
We got couple of burros, the neces-
sary tools, and started early in the
spring. The country about the MINI
bres is about as wild and desolate as
any on earth, and it was a trip that
nothing but faith and enthusiasm would
prompt man to attempt. 1t was one
succession Of gorges, gulches and ac-
clivities. all strewn with granite
powders from the size of mans hand
to a four-story block. and often we
were obliged to leave the water-course
we were following and make detours
that took days at Il time.
1.-The creek we followed was almost
dry and we stopped frequently looking
for placers. We found no very rich
ones, but everywhere there was gold.
Sometimes there would be lots of it in
the bottom of the tin cup after we had
taken drink, and sometimes-here is
curious thing-it would be floating
on the surface. l will let some one who
is better posted in science than | tell
why gold now and then floats; but |
only know that little flakes of it do,
and lot of it is lost in sluice-mining
that way. AS long as we found placers
we knew that the main deposit was
ahead; so we pushed along, tired
enough but confident At last we
came to spot where the sand was barren
for several days journey, and then
we began to prospect the country all
around. To make a long story short,
we struck a ledge one morning with
outcroppings that crumbled under my
pick and showed quartz all streaked
with yellow threads. Charley l
yelled out, all afire at once, we have
struck it!'
But before we sunk shaft we found
something else that sent our hearts to
our mouths. 1t was an old shaft, back
little ways, and in claim, properly
staked out, that covered that very
ledge. There was notification ac-
cCfding to law on one of the posts that
Peter Sumner and Joseph Klautzy had
taken possession of the Big Six and
done the legal assessment work. sat
right down collapsed, but Charley went
over to the shaft and came back to tell
me that it didn't cover half the amount
necessary, under the law, to hold the
property for year. We measured it,
and, sure enough, it was down only
about half the required distance. SO
we took possession of the property,
changed its name to The Treasury
and went to work.
ave built ourselves Il rough shanty,
rugged up u windlass, and began to
sink. In few days we were into
formation rich enough to make a mans
head swim, and getting better as we
went down. We were both so excited
that we begrudgcd the time to eat and
sleep; and we neither Of us meditated
for an instant giving the claim up to